Eric Bischoff On How Discovery – WarnerMedia Merger Could Affect AEW
During the latest episode of an AdFreeShows.com 83 Weeks exclusive Strictly Business podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about the massive merger between Discovery Inc. and WarnerMedia.
"If I were in Tony Khan's shoes right now, I wouldn't be worried about anything because there's no sense worrying about things that you have no control over," Bischoff said. "I'll talk about the things AEW does have control over in a minute but here's what they don't have any control over. No one knows, myself included, and I would venture to guess 99.9% of people that comment on this stuff, none of us know what the strategy is for Discovery.
"We don't know what Zaslav's plans are. I worked with David Zaslav (CEO of Discovery Communicaion) at Discovery, not directly but indirectly, I worked with Discovery while Zaslav was in charge so indirectly. Nobody knows what the plan is for TBS and TNT, just like nobody knows at CNN what the plan is for CNN.
Continuing to talk about the merger between Discovery Inc. and WarnerMedia, Eric Bischoff mentioned how the opinions of many aren't accurate and detailed why AEW is an independent production company.
"There's a lot of chatter, a lot of strong opinions and I see people trying to compare where WCW was during the AOL TimeWarner merger and where they perceive [AEW], because they're basically ignorant, I don't mean that as a shot, they just don't have the knowledge or information," Bischoff said. "The true definition of ignorance.
"They're making statements and observations and have opinions that are based on a complete vacuum of any understanding of what's really going on. WCW was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Turner as part of the AOL TimeWarner merger. AEW is an independent production company, much like I was when I had my own production company with Jason Hervy.
"We create ideas, we develop them, we'd sell them and we'd produce them for a fee. That's exactly what AEW is, no more, no less. They're not a wholly-owned subsidiary which is probably a good thing because you're under less scrutiny at that point."
Overall, Bischoff spoke about what could happen with AEW on TNT and TBS. The WWE Hall of Famer said we'll have to wait and see for David Zaslav to make his decision on AEW and whether or not he thinks it's a profitable company.
"With AEW, it's going to come down to two things," Bischoff said. "The creative direction of David Zaslav for TBS and TNT and the amount of revenue that that licensed property is producing for TBS on that beachfront property. If you've got somebody coming in from Discovery ad sales, because that's what's going to happen, ad sales makes more of the decision on content than just about anybody.
"I can't tell you how many times I pitched really great shows with super great talent attached to it, everybody in the room loved it including the head of the network but the head of the network was going to wait until he got an opinion from ad sales before we got a green light. That's the bottom line.
"Since none of us know that, we're going to wait and see as well as we'll wait and see for the creative strategy for Zaslav and company."
On the first episode of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff detailed how Cody Rhodes' return to WWE will impact AEW.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.